Students: how to pitch a killer product

As I am a British citizen, I like to keep abreast of issues at home; land of Queen Elizabeth II, home of crap dental treatment, Yorkshire puddings, witty sarcastic humour, Monty Python and fish 'n chips. By all that, I mean I read the ZDNet.co.uk pages from time to time. Today I found something rather amusing.

One of the editors, Rupert Goodwins, has devised a cunning yet perfect formula for public relations people and in theory anyone, including entrepreneurial students, for pitching ideas to him.

Don't be put off by the maths; it's serious, but a bit of a joke. If I'm honest, the numbers confuse me, but then again I was always awful at maths.

P = probability that journalist will be interested nt = is it a new technology? up = is it a unique product? bi = the amount of beer involved; eai = the number of engineers available for an interview; m = stands for "marketing "managers" or "mornings"; ace = "already covered elsewhere" - if anyone else has covered it; l = the word "leading" or "leader" in the first paragraph.

So, if you are a student ready to pitch to a journalist, you will need something fresh, something new and unique, people available for interview, buzzwords to grab the interest of folk, and plenty of beer.